Laptop Help.

[Bryson]

Well it has come time for me to get a lap top. My birthday is 12 days away and I thought what a great gift idea, even if I have to buy it myself. Today was the last straw, that made me want it. I was doing my homework, and my dad is the kind of man that dosent ask for help, just expects it. So I'm sitting here at the computer reading away at my transmission book, when he come busting into the room and says " if your not going to help me get the F@!% out"! So I went down to best buy and did some shoping around. I like the Mac book, but the screen it a little on the small side for my liking. Then there was this gateway that I really liked, the color, and it had 2gig's of ram so I could run a game off it. But I'm a little overwhelmed by all the choices. Is there any brands I should stick away from, things I should look for. Any help is appreciated. Thanks,

Bryson

P.S. Now that this idea has took over it looks like the days of me owning a baja are shot to hell. Damn, one day ill get that sucker. lol.

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

I wouldn't go for a Dell IMO. Most people's batteries for their Dell die out on them. I would stick with a Toshiba.

 

[jon2]

I am going to say Dell or HP. Both Customer service is top notch..I have an HP and its awesome.

 

[kwong2001]

How much money do you have to spend? One thing I'd found, the pre-built models are significantly cheaper when you factor in being able to buy it elsewhere and not getting charged for tax (assuming your state has a sales tax). One good tip, get a laptop with as little RAM as you can get, then buy it elsewhere online. I got 4gb of ram for my Sony for around $120ish

I've had good luck with the Dell I bought like 4 years ago, haven't really had any trouble with it, but Dells are expensive if you don't use the coupons, or get a GOOD coupon.

Right now I'm running a Sony Vaio AR605e, 17" screen 1440x900, 1.8ghz core 2 duo, 1gb of ram, 256mb video card, 160gb hard drive, cost $1108 from costcentral.com

From what I've seen, the Sony's are actually the best value, in either pre-built or custom ordered. The HP's seem to have every little thing as an option so the price can go up dramatically.

 

[Bryson]

I'm going to have to research this alot i think. I'm lookin to spend in the neighborhood of 1200 bucks. One thing I'm lookin for is pre built. I dont know jack about electronics and wouldnt think twice on building them. Guess ill look ay dell's tomarrow. Thanks for the help guys.

Bryson

 

[8ight]

My mom has a Toshiba Satellite, and my sister has a HP. So far I am more impressed with my mom's Toshiba. My sister has already sent her HP for repair, the GPU went out. Plus, her HP gets very hot on the bottom. My mom's Toshiba only gets warm, even when plugged in all day.

 

[Bryson]

Gets hot, huh. Well so far I'm still impressed with the Gateway and the Mac Book, but there about 1600 apeace. The Gateway is the FX Performance under this link. http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529598006.php. The dells didnt impress me a hole lot when I looked online. My only problem with a Mac is that its only a 13 inch screen or what ever it is, I like bigger screens for gameing and what not. Any way. Thanks, and if anyone has any info on gateway please share.

Bryson

 

[hamz9561]

I bought a new HP laptop last June. It was in the price range you were looking in. Having had three of the HP laptops over the years, I recommend them. I used to work at Dell and wouldn't really in good conscience recommend them. I would suggest the following:

Get the biggest processor you can afford. These usually aren't upgradeable.
You can always upgrade the memory or hard drives.
Get a discrete GPU. This will help gaming performance.
Get the extended warranty and accidental damage insurance. You never know when someone will dump their coffee on it at a Starbucks.

 

[vbgagnon]

I love my dell. My batt died and they had a new one to me in 22 hours (I'm not exagerating) Can't go wrong with that!